Data from Perseverance confirms Jezero Crater once held a lake
According to a newly published paper, the data obtained by the rover Perseverance has confirmed and refined what orbital data has suggested, that Jezero Crater once held a lake. From the abstract:
We analyze images taken by the rover in the three months after landing. The fan has outcrop faces that were invisible from orbit, which record the hydrological evolution of Jezero crater. We interpret the presence of inclined strata in these outcrops as evidence of deltas that advanced into a lake. In contrast, the uppermost fan strata are composed of boulder conglomerates, which imply deposition by episodic high-energy floods. This sedimentary succession indicates a transition, from a sustained hydrologic activity in a persistent lake environment, to highly energetic short-duration fluvial flows.
In other words, the crater first held a lake, which as it slowly dried out was periodically renewed by flash floods. The distinct delta of material that made Jezero Crater the prime landing site was apparently formed during the period when the lake existed. The conditions that caused the subsequent flash floods is as yet not been determined, though it likely is related to the red planet’s long term evolution.
The image above, figure 5 from the paper, shows the inferred lake in that early history. The red cross marks Perseverance’s landing site.
This data reinforces the fundamental scientific mystery of Mars. It shows evidence that liquid water once flowed on the surface of Mars, even though other long term data of the planet’s history says the Martian atmosphere has been too thin and too cold to allow that to happen. There is evidence that the atmosphere might have once been thicker, but no computer model or theory has been able to produce a time when it was warm enough.
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According to a newly published paper, the data obtained by the rover Perseverance has confirmed and refined what orbital data has suggested, that Jezero Crater once held a lake. From the abstract:
We analyze images taken by the rover in the three months after landing. The fan has outcrop faces that were invisible from orbit, which record the hydrological evolution of Jezero crater. We interpret the presence of inclined strata in these outcrops as evidence of deltas that advanced into a lake. In contrast, the uppermost fan strata are composed of boulder conglomerates, which imply deposition by episodic high-energy floods. This sedimentary succession indicates a transition, from a sustained hydrologic activity in a persistent lake environment, to highly energetic short-duration fluvial flows.
In other words, the crater first held a lake, which as it slowly dried out was periodically renewed by flash floods. The distinct delta of material that made Jezero Crater the prime landing site was apparently formed during the period when the lake existed. The conditions that caused the subsequent flash floods is as yet not been determined, though it likely is related to the red planet’s long term evolution.
The image above, figure 5 from the paper, shows the inferred lake in that early history. The red cross marks Perseverance’s landing site.
This data reinforces the fundamental scientific mystery of Mars. It shows evidence that liquid water once flowed on the surface of Mars, even though other long term data of the planet’s history says the Martian atmosphere has been too thin and too cold to allow that to happen. There is evidence that the atmosphere might have once been thicker, but no computer model or theory has been able to produce a time when it was warm enough.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Not an astro geologist but put me down in the volcanism or impact camp of “rapid snowmelt episodes [from either a climatic origin (1, 3) or heating by volcanism or impact”. Be interesting if there’s any evidence of ancient volcano or other hydrothermal type of heating around Jezero.
I wonder how big a collision would have to be to remove an atmosphere? Or stall the source of a magnetosphere., etc. .Ever since I was young, I thought it was odd that the biggest valley and the tallest volcano were on opposite sides of the planet.. It seems to me that something catastrophic could be responsible for things “not making sense”.
I agree, the impact that caused the Helena basin would be severe enough to “create” an atmosphere for hundreds of years.
There is strong evidence it was the causation of the volcanoes as well. Also adding to the atmosphere.
An older event has been speculated that the entire smooth “lower altitude” northern hemisphere of Mars is an “impact site” that deposited the debris on the higher rougher southern hemisphere. The only possible scenario that I can make work in my head, is if mars passed through the atmosphere of a gas giant, like passing through water, scrubbing the northern hemisphere and removing the atmosphere.
The dust and debris from the Helenas impact would have covered any ice that existed at the time, in the same way ancient forest were covered during an event on earth, which are our coalbeds today. Places deeply covered could have melted and became ice volcanoes similar to the one just to the right and north of the Helena’s basin which shows a profound amount of erosion from one central point. (it looks different than the lava volcanoes)
Although the pictures of physical evidence supports this. Even so, it’s still unclear. They do not have enough information for their models… As if those were ever right. I love a good mystery.
(This feels like a game of Pictionary)